


Home Sick

by YaYaSestrahood



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Gen, Queerplatonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 16:43:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12063012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaYaSestrahood/pseuds/YaYaSestrahood
Summary: Niki takes care of an under-the-weather Veera.





	Home Sick

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lizzieraindrops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizzieraindrops/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Someday colors](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7853803) by [lizzieraindrops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizzieraindrops/pseuds/lizzieraindrops). 



The sight of them in the bathroom mirror is a cruel joke: genetic identicals, one as bright and vibrant as the summer sky outside their apartment, and Veera, who looks like she’s just crawled out of the sewer. Niki pulls the thermometer out, and Veera is left with a strange feeling in her mouth, somehow both dry and slimy. This has been her life for the past twenty-four hours, zeroing in on some way in which she feels miserable and wallowing in it for a few seconds before moving onto the next. Suffice it to say that she feels bad everywhere.

Oh, her knees ache.

“Thirty-nine point one,” Niki sighs. “You were at thirty-nine point two last night. Feel any better?”

Veera does not feel any better, and it comes out of her mouth as a sort of wordless grumble. It seems to get the message across.

“Okay, come on,” Niki says. She pulls at Veera’s arm, and Veera, still lamenting her achy knees, slumps against her with nearly her full weight.

“Not like that, you big lump,” Niki laughs. “Help me out a little, okay? It’s a short trip, promise.”

Veera pulls herself upright, groaning from the effort, and wills her legs to move. She steps off the terry-cloth rug and nearly cries at the feeling of her bare feet hitting the ice cold tile. She doesn’t (that would be ridiculous) but she wants to. Her head dangles down on her shoulders, and Niki pulls her slightly closer and slightly closer still as they walk, gradually taking more and more of Veera’s weight. Veera doesn’t realize they’ve passed her room until they’ve stopped and she feels Niki waiting expectantly for something. She raises her head and sees the living room couch directly in front of her, the enormous blanket she bought barely visible underneath a mountain of sheets and pillows and comforters. She thinks she even recognizes the greens and pinks of Niki’s bedroom quilt in there somewhere.

“What’s this?” she asks and winces at the pain in her throat. It hurts when she talks. It also hurts when she’s not talking.

“You’re staying on this couch today. I can keep a closer eye on you in here. And I made it extra super comfy, so I don’t want to hear any complaints.”

Veera knows what it means for Niki to give up her favorite napping spot. And it _does_ look extra super comfy. She just wants to fall face first into it. So she does. _Foompf._ She sinks into a sea of plushy softness and, for a second, forgets every ache and pain and nauseous feeling in her body.

 _“Fangoo,”_ she mumbles into a pillow.

“Hm?”

She rolls over, embedding herself deeper into her cocoon.

“Thank you,” she repeats.

She catches Niki’s soft smile over the crest of a baby blue duvet.

“You can thank me by getting better.”

Veera nods, closing her eyes. Niki keeps talking, but she’s already a million miles away.

Only she isn’t. She’s here with Veera, and they’re standing in a corner of a room in Niki’s old house in Tapiola. There’s a party happening all around them, but Veera barely notices.

“Thank you for inviting me,” she says, and Niki beams back in response.

“It was only supposed to be you and me. I don’t know why everyone else is here.”

And suddenly they aren’t. Suddenly, it’s just the two of them and they’re sat together on a bed in their small Silja Line cabin, en route to Poland. She feels the familiar fear manifesting inside her chest, but the feel of Niki’s arm tight around her helps her settle.

“I couldn’t do this without you,” Veera whispers. She thinks she should be able to hear the ocean, but the world outside is still.

“Do what?”

“I don’t know. Anything. Everything. I need you.”

“Well,” Niki says, and there’s a smile in her voice. “Don’t tell anyone, but I need you too.”

She reaches out a pinky and holds it in front of Veera’s face.

“Secret for a secret.”

Veera nods happily, and reaches for it, but… it’s gone. Niki’s gone, and it’s dark here in the Saint Bridget’s Church, and Veera is alone.

“Niki?!” she cries, and it bounces off the walls and fills the room with her loneliness. She rushes for the large, wooden doors and tries to pull them open, but they don’t move. _Trapped._

“Niki!” she screams. “Don’t leave me!”

She tries the handles again, and this time, they burn her skin. She stumbles backward from the shock and falls, and she can’t pick herself back up.

If Niki were here, she’d know what to do. But she isn’t. It’s just Veera, trapped and alone, and when she turns, she sees it: the wall of flame stretching from one end of the room to the other. It seems to flicker and swell with anger as she looks at it. The church is burning, and Veera is going to burn with it.

Her eyes shoot open. She wrestles with a couple of blankets as she tries to sit up. Her skin is covered with an ice cold layer of sweat.

“Niki?” she calls, then slumps back down as the pain hits her throat.

“Yeah?” Niki replies, and she’s here. She’s safe and she’s here with Veera. She can see her in the kitchen, peeking over the half-wall between them. “You okay?”

“How long was I asleep?” Veera asks.

“About ten minutes?”

“Oh,” Veera says, embarrassed. She was dreaming… she can’t remember what about. All that’s left is the fear.

“I missed you so much,” she says, and before she realizes it, she’s crying. She buries her face in a blanket and hopes Niki doesn’t notice.

“Hey,” Niki says gently, and suddenly she’s sitting beside her, pulling her up. Veera throws her arms around her, rests her chin on her shoulder. Niki’s hand glides up and down her back, soothing.

“Oh, Veera. You’re so dramatic sometimes,” she says, but she uses that voice that Veera knows means she understands. Because of course she does. “It’s okay now,  _karitsa._ I’m here. I’m always here.”

Veera nods and slowly disentangles herself from Niki. It’s then that she notices the large, wooden spoon in Niki’s hand.

“Oh,” Niki says, catching Veera’s gaze. “Here, taste this.”

She brings the spoon up to Veera’s lips. It glistens with a thin coat of something that, even through Veera’s stuffy nose, she can tell smells delicious. She brings her mouth forward and tastes it. It’s even better than it smells.

_“Mmm.”_

“Good, right?” Niki asks, beaming at her reaction. “Basil chicken soup.”

Veera looks into Niki’s eyes, pulling her lips between her teeth with worry.

“Basil?”

Niki just laughs and rubs Veera’s shoulder, reassuring.

“I told you your plant was okay. It can spare a few leaves. It’s healthier than you right now, that’s for sure.”

Veera nods, putting on a smile to match Niki’s.

“Thank you,” she says. “For taking care of me.”

Niki pulls her back into an embrace, and she sinks into her as easily as a mountain of blankets.

“We look out for each other,” Niki whispers.

Veera lets the stillness of the moment wash over her: the sunlight settling on the back of her neck, Niki’s hands gently stroking her back and her breath soft and warm at her ear. She wants to close her eyes and sleep, just like this.

“You shouldn’t get so close to me,” she says instead. “I’ll make you sick.”

Niki lets out a small laugh that tickles Veera’s neck.

“Good thing there’s room on this couch for two then.”


End file.
